Reuse of used hand warmer for preventing nitrate pollution and estimation of relevant solute behavior

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This study focused on the possible reuse of used hand warmer contents (HWCs) for retarding and spreading nitrate transport in two types of soils to avoid a prompt nitrate leaching to groundwater with a high concentration. The column experiments allowed the observation of the nitrate behavior at various flow rates under the different conditions of mixture ratios of HWCs. Temporal moments were applied to estimate the dispersion coefficient, the retardation factor and the distribution coefficient. Results indicated that the retardation factor increased with the increase in the amount of HWCs and reached up to 3.3 and 1.7 in silica sand and Andisol, respectively. In particular, the effect of HWCs on nitrate retardation in silica sand appeared to be significant. Accordingly, HWCs have a potency to be an effective adsorbent for the nitrate transport in sandy media whereas porous media such as Andisols with an aggregate structure might hinder the ability of HWCs.